Now I would like to share the information about the discount ticket and pass with you. I classify these tickets and passes under three types, all Kansai area, Kyoto and Osaka. I hope this post will help you to find the right one for you.

All Kansai area

This category is suitable for the tourists who visit Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara and many more places in Kansai for multiple days. I recommend you Kansai Thru Pass (Surutto Kansai Pass). And also JR West Kansai Area Pass may be considerble.*If you will use Japan Rail Pass, don’t think about JR West Kansai Area Pass. Japan Rail Pass includes everything that JR West Rail Pass has.

This is the most recommend one! This pass includes all major private lines and subway lines, such as Hankyu, Hanshin, Keihan, Kintetsu, Nankai, Osaka Subway and Kyoto Subway. You can access Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Nara, Himeji, Mt. Koya, Kansai airport, Wakayama and many more place. This pass is sold at 5,200 yen for 3 days and 4,000 yen for 2 days. It gives you the greatest value in any railway pass of Kansai area. But if you think about only round trip between Kyoto and Osaka, the regular fare may be cheaper. Please see the details at the post, .How to use Kansai Thru Pass. Compare pass and single fare. I compare the price of pass and single fare in many cases. You will find which you should buy or not.

Kansai Airport Express Haruka is one of the fastest way to get Kansai airport.

You don’t need to worry about express trains. There are lots of Rapid train services. These urban train services give you fast and frequent transfer. Please see the post, Rapid service network in Kansai area about Rapid trains in Kansai area.

Especially if you use this pass for Haruka, that is a good deal. But if you think about using this pass for sightseeing in Kyoto or Osaka, it may not work. Especially JR lines is not so convenient in Kyoto. Please read How to use Japan Rail Pass in Kyoto to get more details. Kansai Thru Pass (Surutto Kansai Pass) or the single fare and Kyoto day pass combination might be better choice for your trip in Kyoto and/or Osaka.

Kyoto area

This is a basic day pass of Kyoto City Subway and Bus. You can go anywhere in city of Kyoto. There are two types of pass, One day at 1200 yen and Two days at 2000 yen. Please see the details at Kyoto Municipal Transportation official website. If you pay a single fare, it costs 210 to 340 yen to take the subway and 220 yen to take the bus. So if you take a bus or subway more than 5 times a day, this pass is worth the price. If you are not sure how many times you take, I recommend you to purchase this pass. It is not bad deal, more convenient and save your time to calculate the fare at the station.

This pass is very suitable for the tourists who stay in Kyoto. Because you can use this pass even short distance transfer. For example, you can take a bus to move only several blocks to get the restaurant.

This pass is very similar to the One or Two day pass above. But this pass does not include any subway lines. The price is only 500 yen for one day. If you take more than three, it would pay. Even though some of the popular spots in Kyoto, like Arashiyama, cannot be accessed by this pass, this affordable price may work for most of tourists.

I recommend this pass to the tourists who have one day trip to Kyoto from Osaka. If you have Kansai Thru Pass or JR West Kansai Area Pass, this pass will cover the place where these rail passes cannot cover. If you use Japan Rail pass, this pass is one of the best choice. Because you need to use subway or bus to get most of spots in Kyoto anyway. Of course you can combine this pass with a single fare from Osaka.

Osaka area

There are lots of subway lines in downtown Osaka. This is the best way to explore in Osaka. You can use JR lines too. Especially if you will be Japan Rail Pass user, try to use JR lines as much as you ca. Please see the post, How to use Japan Rail Pass in downtown Osaka.

This is a basic day pass of Osaka Municipal Transportation. You take any subway lines and bus service that are operated by Osaka city. The price is 800 yen. But if you use buy this pass on weekends or holidays, the price is cheaper. It is only 600 yen. If you take subway train from Umeda to Namba, the fare is 230 yen. So it is not hard to use more than even higher price 800 yen.

Comment navigation

First of all, thank you so much for providing such an informative website.

My husband and I are travelling in Japan for the first time (Osaka, Kyoto, Nara & maybe Kobe) from 23 Aug to 30 Aug.
We need some help as we are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information we have read on the different rail passes.

Below is our rough itinerary:
Day 1: 23 Aug – Arrive KIX in the evening at about 7p.m.
Accommodation for the night is at a hotel connected to Shin-Osaka station. Will explore nearby areas for the night.

Day 2: Travel to Kyoto.
Days 2 – 5: Base is Kyoto. Staying at a hotel that is 7 mins walk away from Kyoto Station.
In between Days 2 to Days 5, we plan to do one day trip to Nara, and maybe another day trip to Kobe. (We are undecided about Kobe, because we are not sure if it’s worth a visit.)

Day 6: Travel back to Osaka.
Days 6 & 7, staying in at a place near to Shinsaibashi subway station and Nagahoribashi subway station.
Day 8: Fly back to Singapore (late evening flight) from KIX.

Which pass(es) do you recommend for us for these 8 days?
Friends told us to get the JR pass, but I figured we don’t need that since we are only at Kansai area, and not travelling to Tokyo.

But if you go to Nara only, single fare is okay because 2 days is minimum for Kansai thru pass. You may use ICOCA for visiting Nara. You can add more fund into ICOCA as you need at the vending machine in JR station, like Kyoto station.

My friend and I are going to Japan coming this November (mid). The thing is that we will be flying into Osaka and flying out from Tokyo. This will be our first time visiting Japan. I’ve read few travel materials especially on the web but until now I’m still quite confused on the transportation mode in between here and there [especially the lines, like you have the JR line, Kansai line, Hankyu line, Sanyo line and so forth. And then you have the Shinkanzen, Railway, Subway, midnight express bus (Willer Express ), ICOCA, Haruka etc.
We plan to cover Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara and Tokyo within 14 days as based on blogs that I’ve came across, these are the few places which are highly recommended. We plan to travel ‘as cheaply as possible’. We do note that transportation in Japan are quite expensive. We do hope you could advise us on these few things :

1) Mode of transportation in between cities ie. from Osaka to Kyoto, then from Kyoto to Nara and so on.
2) Next place to go from Osaka ?
3) Can we possibly cover Hiroshima and Hakone too ?
4) How long should we stay in 1 place ?
5) Cheaper to move around within a city with subway/railway ?

Really appreciate your help and looking forward in hearing from you soon !

For example, if you stay in Umeda and want to go to Gion in Kyoto, Hankyu Railway is the best choice. If you take JR, you have to transfer at Kyoto station to catch a bus. If you take Keihan, it takes you to Gion but you have to take subway to get Yodoyabashi. This is a reason why you have to make the detailed itinerary. Otherwise we cannot choose the deals.

2. If you mean the place where you should go on the way to Tokyo, only Kyoto is on the way to Tokyo. If you just want to know the place to go from Osaka, you can go any cities other than Tokyo.

4. It’s tough to say. It depends what you want to see. Try to make sure what you want to see, you want to go and you want to do. I have several sample itineraries at the link below:http://jprail.com/category/sample-itineraries

5. Subway is usually most convenient. The links above for your first inquiry show railway/subway map.

About JP Rail.com

This website is unofficial website about Japan Rail Pass, other rail passes and rail travel in Japan. It explains you how to use Japan Rail Pass and assists you to use Japan Rail Pass to its maximum! And also this site explain about many more rail passes, gives you tips and supports you to enjoy rail trip in Japan.